Korean is the official language of North and South Korea and there are currently about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. Korean has a unique script called Han'g l, developed in the fifteenth century at the order of the king. It is a highly sophisticated alphabet that is remarkably easy to learn. As Australia's future is increasingly tied to the countries in Asia, the importance of a language such as Korean will continue to grow. Knowledge of Korean is not only invaluable for understanding Korean society and culture but it is also a skill valued in a wide range of professions, both in Australia and internationally.

A student may not take a course if that course is a prerequisite for another course which they have already passed.

Students with prior knowledge of the language will be required to take a placement test.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the Korean language major students should be able to:

express themselves confidently in a polite, neutral or informal register, appropriate to the genre and the audience;

engage with authentic media such as television news broadcasts, movies, short stories and novels by summarizing, analysing, evaluating and criticizing their content;

write texts in Korean in the appropriate genre, with correct grammatical structures and thematic vocabulary relevant to the level of the student;

Write, perform and record presentations or interviews in Korean either individually or in cooperative groups, and answer questions based on those performances or interviews;

Course Lists

The course lists in the "Requirements" section below is a definitive list and includes all courses that can be counted towards the major, whether or not they are offered in the current year. For a list of courses that will be offered in the current year, please see the Summary of Courses page.